I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

It was massive. It was complex. It was incredibly detailed. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in my life. I was overwhelmed by its creativity, or should I say by the creativity of the people who made this happen.

Who would have thought we would see something like this in downtown New York? Totally unexpected…

I was in New York with an employee attending a sports marketing conference. At the time I owned a sports marketing agency. We created and sold revenue generating game day promotions to pro sports teams. Our clients were mainly in the NBA and the NHL, but we worked in over a dozen pro and semi-pro leagues across North America.

The conference itself was a bit of a bust, but our time in New York was amazing. A highlight was watching the Rangers play the Leafs at Madison Square Gardens and nearly getting my butt kicked by an angry, drunken New York fan who stood to his feet and yelled at me, “Kill the Canadian! Death to the Canadian!”

We spent a fair bit of time touring New York, taking in shows, seeing the sites, interacting with locals and heading off with other conference attendees to taste the local fair. It was on one of these junkets I came across the picture I would never forget.

We had arrived at the ESPN Sports Bar and Restaurant in Times Square. I don’t know if it still exists, but in the late 1990’s it was a happening place near the epicenter of Manhattan. We entered through the front doors into a cacophony of sights and sounds. Large TVS were everywhere playing every kind of sporting event imaginable – all ESPN of course.

The place was alive with activity, but as I scanned around the enormous open two-story premise I saw the picture along the back wall. It went from the first floor to the second. It was equally as wide. From what I could see it was a magnificent backdrop for the open zig-zag stair case leading to the second floor perimeter which over looked all the activity of the first floor below.

It was a huge picture of Babe Ruth. It was not really clear though. It almost looked like it was out of focus – a bit like a gigantic Leroy Niemen painting.

Thankfully we were seated in an upstairs lofted table which required we take the stairway. This afforded me the opportunity to see the picture up close. It was then that the full weight of this picture’s glory began to dawn upon me.

You see, the entire picture was made up of countless individual baseball cards.

Someone, or more accurately many someones, had painstakingly put together myriad regular-sized baseball cards to create a marvelous picture of Babe Ruth. I can’t begin to imagine the complexity of such an undertaking, and the incredible creativity and attention to detail required to execute such a feat.

I was speechless.

This picture of Babe Ruth is an example of what a leader does:  A leader ensures everyone takes their place in creating the broader picture of the organization.  Every person in your organization plays a role in creating your brand.  The true essence of your organization is made up of all the individual contributions of your people.

So, the million dollar question is, “What is the picture your people are creating?”

Have you clearly articulated who you are as an organization, why you are here, where you are going, and how you are going to get there?  If you haven’t, then your people don’t know the picture they are creating.  They won’t k now their place in the bigger picture, they won’t understand their significance, you won’t get their best and, therefore, your organization won’t be its best.

I encourage you as a leader to think like the creators of that incredible picture of Babe Ruth – envision the picture to be created, and then ensure the individual players on your team take their place to bring to reality the vision of what you can be together.

Everyone is a piece of the picture, and the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts.